Hogwarts Legacy will be a big game in the Harry Potter universe, but the release will be accompanied by controversy surrounding author JK Rowling. Despite criticism, the game is currently climbing up Steam’s top seller list.
Hogwarts Legacy will be an open-world role-playing game developed by Avalanche Software. It takes place in the world of Harry Potter, but much earlier: you take on a character in the 19th century, choose your house, learn magic and explore Hogwarts freely. There will be a new story for that.
This is how it looks on Steam right now: If you look at the current global top seller list on Steam, Hogwarts Legacy is one of the absolute top sellers there (via Steam). Only the Steam Deck is ahead of him, as well as CS:GO, Dota 2 and Apex Legends – although these are all free downloadable games, reports the Forbes site.
As a purchasable game, Hogwarts Legacy is thus ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and FIFA 23. In contrast to these games, Hogwarts Legacy has not even been released yet: It will not be released until February 10, 2023, i.e. in just under a month .
In addition, the controversy surrounding JK Rowling and calls for a boycott accompanied the game. We will now go into these in more detail.
This is what Hogwarts Legacy looks like
What is the call to boycott Hogwarts Legacy about?
One of the reasons for the boycott calls is JK Rowling’s position on the subject of “transgenders”, which some see as anti-trans and discriminatory. As early as spring 2021, there were calls for a boycott of Hogwarts Legacy.
The GameSpot site also published a detailed article on Rowling’s attitude in March 2022 (via gamespot).
Rowling’s statements led to calls for a boycott. As a result, a sometimes very charged discussion arose about Hogwarts Legacy. On the one hand there are boycott calls, on the other hand players who want to live out the world of Harry Potter.
In an FAQ, the developers also reported, among other things, on the role of Rowling in connection with the game (via hogwartslegacy.com):
JK Rowling is not involved in the development of the game, but as the creator of the wizarding world and one of the world’s greatest storytellers, her exceptional writing is the foundation of all projects in the Wizarding World. This isn’t a new story from JK Rowling, but we’ve worked closely with her team on all aspects of the game to ensure it delivers the magical experiences fans have come to expect.
We have already taken a closer look at the boycott calls on MeinMMO here: A German Twitch streamer calls for a boycott against Hogwarts Legacy.
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